Instrumentarian power turns people into means toward surveillance capitalists’ market ends.

Evidence

As to this species of power, I name it instrumentarianism, defined as the instrumentation and instrumentalization of behavior for the purposes of modification, prediction, monetization, and control. In this formulation, “instrumentation” refers to the puppet: the ubiquitous connected material architecture of sensate computation that renders, interprets, and actuates human experience. “Instrumentalization” denotes the social relations that orient the puppet masters to human experience as surveillance capital wields the machines to transform us into means to others’ market ends. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1118

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces the book’s key coined term instrumentarianism, splitting it into instrumentation (the machinery) and instrumentalization (the social relations), with a puppet/puppet-master frame.
• XREF: The puppet-master framing parallels the means-of-production/behavioral-modification relationship from the previous paragraph and the uncontract coercions discussed earlier in the book. — connects to: Securitization converts civic collapse into depoliticized paranoia that feeds policing and surveillance. — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 259; Instrumentarian power arises from converging surveillance capabilities and monetized behavioral surplus — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1214; Surveillance capitalism operates through Big Other to engineer behavior rather than souls — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1196 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Instrumentarian power arises from converging surveillance capabilities and monetized behavioral surplus #expands (0.92) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1214
• Surveillance capitalism operates through Big Other to engineer behavior rather than souls #expands (0.85) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1196
• Surveillance capitalism aims to author people rather than destroy them #expands (0.85) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1062